The NHS has issued new guidelines recommending an end to the "postcode lottery" controversy that has dogged IVF treatment. Beth Neil found out more.

When Laura McGee found out she was pregnant, it was the most emotional experience of her life. After six years of trying for a baby, Laura and husband Gary could at last look forward to becoming parents.

Gary, 30, was left with fertility problems after chickenpox put him in a coma, but the couple, from Stanley, were distraught after being told that due to a funding crisis in their area, they would have to wait until 2011 before receiving IVF treatment.

"Fertility problems are devastating enough for any couple," says Laura. "But what made it worse was that we felt no-one was listening. Everything seemed hopeless."

But Laura and Gary were determined to fight for their dream. They knew how much love they could offer a child and were not going to be put off.

They kicked off their campaign with a petition, and then went on to wave a banner outside Sunderland's Stadium of Light demanding justice for childless couples.

Eventually the couple were offered a cheaper form of fertility treatment at #300 a shot. The drawback to intrauterine insemination was that the success rate was only eight per cent.

"We were willing to give anything a chance," says Laura. "We were warned that the possibility of me getting pregnant was low, but that didn't deter us at all."

Unbelievably, 24-year-old Laura fell pregnant after the first attempt. She's now expecting a baby boy around Christmas time.

"I feel fantastic. I'm loving being pregnant. The baby moves around all the time. He's a real livewire! It's the most wonderful feeling. We're just so excited."

"We're going to call him Jack and give him the middle name Quinn, after footballer Niall Quinn. It's going to be a really special Christmas this year."

Yesterday the NHS published new guidelines recommending free fertility treatment for couples unable to conceive naturally. The proposals would put an end to the "postcode lottery" which Laura and Gary fell victim to and grant three attempts of IVF treatment to women aged between 23 and 39.

At the moment couples are entitled to IVF treatment on the NHS only if they live in certain areas. Under the current system, whether two couples living on the same street qualify for the treatment can depend on which side of the road their house is on.

Those who don't qualify face having to cough up around #3,000 for private treatment.

"It's really unfair the way things are at the minute," says Laura. "But this news is fantastic. I was so pleased when I heard. It's going to give everyone the chance to have a go and that's the way it should be.

"People shouldn't be embarrassed about fertility problems. I'd love people to fight and campaign more to get guidelines like this fully implemented. Everyone should have a voice."

Prof Alison Murdoch is chair of the British Fertility Society and based at Newcastle's Centre for Life. She welcomes the moves but urges couples to keep on pushing to get them established.

"The new guidelines are really positive news and a huge step forward for us. But the funding won't automatically be there and there's still a lot of work to do. We are talking about a couple of years at least before we start seeing changes.

"People all over the country have got to lobby their health services and their MPs to make sure these resources are found.

"Infertility is a medical problem and people suffering deserve help every bit as much as other health problems."

Prof Murdoch claims that as things stand, the further north you are, the better is the provision of free IVF treatment. But she admits that the system can reap misery. At the moment, even those lucky enough to live in an area where they are entitled to free IVF are allowed only two attempts.

"The guidelines recommend three treatments, which means the majority of cases will be successful," says Prof Murdoch.

"I've seen the trauma fertility problems can cause a couple. It's much greater than what I see in a general gynaecology clinic.

"Infertility is a life-changing problem and causes all sorts of difficulties with relationships, and depression."

But many pro-life groups are angered by the NHS announcement. Josephine Quintavalle from Comment on Reproductive Ethics (CORE) slammed the guidelines, claiming the money could be better spent elsewhere.

She said: "We question why we are putting our hands in our pockets to fund the most expensive, least effective and most unethical solution to infertility.

"Admittedly, infertility can cause anguish and distress. So surely we must address the actual problem of infertility. Giving out free IVF treatment is certainly not doing that. After treatment, people can be just as infertile as they were before."

She also argues that the chances of pregnancy through IVF are so small, it's not worth devoting millions of pounds of public money to.

She said: "The simple fact is that most couples don't go home with a baby. That is the reality."

CORE believes that the process of IVF is immoral and has called for the treatment to be banned.

"IVF is extremely disrespectful towards the early embryo. Most of them are created and then thrown away. We are not saying we shouldn't be addressing the issue of infertility, but it should be pointed out that it's not as complex a problem as people think.

"It's to do with lifestyle. You might have a woman who has been on the contraceptive pill for 15 or 20 years and can't get pregnant straight away. We would encourage women to have babies at the age nature intended. It's much more difficult to get pregnant over the age of 35."

But Gateshead couple Michele and Robert Hallam disagree. IVF gave them their beautiful one-year-old daughter, Cerys, and they wouldn't change a thing.

"I know every parent says it about their own children, but Cerys really is absolutely gorgeous.

"She's at that age of being into everything! She's trying to walk, but crawling gets her from A to B at the minute."

Michele's voice quivers with emotion when talking about Cerys and it's obvious the little girl is adored.

Fertility problems meant Michele's only chance of conceiving was to go through IVF. She also required an egg donor, which made the situation even more complicated.

Her sister, Andrea, volunteered to donate her own eggs and after five agonising years of stress and frustration, Michele finally became pregnant at the first IVF attempt. Little Cerys was born on July 2, 2002.

"It was an emotional rollercoaster," says Michele. "We are just eternally grateful that we've got Cerys.

Michele and Robert got the treatment on the NHS, but she knows that so many couples miss out.

"The news about the new guidelines is really positive and I'm excited about what is happening. IVF should be available to everyone regardless of age or postcode. And I don't think people who want more than one child after having IVF should be seen as being greedy. There shouldn't be restrictions like that.

"What I would like to see now is more people coming forward as egg donors. I'd ask them to contact the Centre for Life because there are plenty of couples who aren't as lucky as we have been."

Page 2: Those who will benefit

Those who will benefit

The new NHS guidelines have been drawn up by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence. They are expected to be implemented next year and will entitle thousands of women aged between 23 and 39 to free IVF treatment.

Women who have been diagnosed with infertility problems such as damaged fallopian tubes, endemetriosis, abnormality of the uterus and problematic ovulation will qualify for free treatment. It will also be available when a male partner has a diagnosed problem such as a low sperm count.

Infertility strikes one in six couples for many different reasons. If any primary care trust refuses to pay for treatment, the couple have the right to appeal to the Health Secretary who can, in theory, make the PCT pay up.

Problems with conceiving are growing as women delay motherhood into their late 30s, with the quality of sperm in men declining in their late 40s.

It is estimated that 60,000 British women have become pregnant through IVF and other assisted conception techniques since Louise Brown became the first test tube baby in 1978.

While IVF is the most commonly used infertility treatment, other methods, such as intracytoplasmic sperm injection, which was developed in the early 90s, have improved the chances whose fertility problem lies within the man.

Since 1991, the number of children born from IVF treatment has almost trebled and success rates have nearly doubled.

Nearly 25,000 women underwent more than 25,000 cycles of IVF between 2000 and 2001 in the UK, according to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.

Some 22 per cent of these treatments resulted in live births, rising to 25 per cent in women under the age of 38.